Ball peen to spike hawk

J

Jason Fry

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Jun 5, 2008
Messages
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Started from a ball peen about 16 oz, USA stamped. Forgot that my phone was plugged in, but I got a few pics later in the process.


Here it is after some of the Blade was beginning to be forged out, right before I started drifting the eye.

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A bit more forging...

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Forged to shape all but the spike end. Time for a little profile cleanup on the grinder.

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Drifted the eye out larger to fit a regular hammer handle.

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Got it close to finished. After this I normalized in the oven and then did a bit of finish grinding. May heat treat tomorrow.

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Hickory n steel said:
Nice, my only suggestion would be to set the head further down onto the shoulder of the handle
Click to expand...

Not opposed. This one is wedged like a modern hammer or axe, not tapered like a traditional hawk. Have a bucket full of hammer handles...
 
Jason Fry said:
Not opposed. This one is wedged like a modern hammer or axe, not tapered like a traditional hawk. Have a bucket full of hammer handles...
Click to expand...

All you gotta do is cut it off and hand it back on, this would put it right where it needs to be and you'd probably have the perfect 1/8" proud of the eye.


EDIT: auto fill / check error.
 
Last edited:
Yes sir, it is 1/8 proud, just can’t see it from the angle of the picture.
 
Jason- very nice, I saw your spike hatchet and had deja vu. November, 1965, two US Army draftees ( me and a friend who was from a black smith family) forged two identical to your spike hatchets from ball peen hammers. Turned into a nice little business venture for us. The only problem was the Army could not figure out why they had no ball peen hammers. Thanks for the memory, even though it brings both good and bad memories.
I would consider trimming that shoulder from the handle under the eye. A smooth transition would make the hatchet easy to use for close work.
 
That does make sense on the bulge under the head potentially interfering with hatchet work. I'm half tempted to cut it off a bit shorter, take that bulge down to a smooth taper. If I can find a customer that wants it, I may sell it as is and fix the next one. This was the first one of these I've done. I've got a bucket half full of ball peen heads, and another bucket full of hammer handles, so I won't likely go with the traditional tapered shaft hawk for a while.
 
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